Friday, May 30, 2008

This video recipe was filmed over a year ago (with a webcam duct-taped to a spice rack), and was never posted here due to what I thought was a corrupted file (and no back-up). I won’t bore you with the technical details (which means I'm not sure how I did it), but I was able to extract the video and do a new voice-over. Unfortunately, there were no photos of the dish, which explains the screen shot, with watercolor filter applied, seen here.

As I say in the video, duck legs are such great meat. They are cheap, rich tasting, easy to work with, and if you do some research, you'll learn that duck fat is actually not such a bad thing. I doubt your local grocery store sells them - instead you'll find whole frozen ducks, which will work in a pinch. But, if you call a meat market, or restaurant supplier, they can easily order a box of frozen duck legs for you. I get mine at a local SF meat wholesaler for about $3 a pound.

They really are delicious, and well worth the trouble searching for. Hey, you can probably even order them online. Here, I'm using them in place of pork and/or beef, in a fairly straightforward meat sauce recipe. Another great thing about the legs is the magnificent skin. I love it fried to a crisp, chopped up, and dusted on top of my pasta. A stunning contrast in texture and flavor. Enjoy!

Nice, I love duck, I think its the most delicious, succulent, tender meat out there... Hey Chef, you live in Cali right? You should go get some of those hanging roasted ducks in san fran, there awesome!

Hi Chef. We just finished taking the skin off the duck legs - it is much harder than you make it look! A technique video would be very helpful. We are hoping the dish comes out ok, since the legs are completely butchered now. *Fingers crossed*

Maybe I have freakishly strong fingers, or weak duck! Don't worry, it doesn't matter what they look like. Just make sure you cook until the meat is falling off the bone. The sauce will taste wonderful!

thanks chef john for the recipe! i couldn't find duck legs (even at european meat market) so i used chicken legs instead - and i used penne instead of rigatoni... so really i made chicken leg penne. haha.. but it was sooo delicious still and got rave reviews from roommate and boyfriend. "how did you make the sauce? this doesn't taste like you threw in the regular pasta sauce!"